First time vMA Magplar build

This guide is specific to those whom have never cleared Veteran Maelstrom Arena. Everywhere I looked while I was struggling only gave me Best in Slot gear guides which were useless cause the best in slot weapons….. are Maelstrom weapons.

This is more for the “I working with what I got” kind of folk who need a bit of guidance. Fear not, you don’t need Maelstrom weapons for this!

KEEP IN MIND! You will die a lot.. still.. This isn’t for flawless runs or anything. I’m purely going for first time clears.

So before I begin, Gratz! You chose an extremely hard class type to clear with! Being a squishy little mage means you pop the second anything touches you. So don’t get discouraged if you die… A lot.. Like I did my first time. To start, let’s look at my gear:

2x Valkyn Skoria (Divines, All Magicka Enchants). I love this set. A Templar basically is nothing but DoTs so having this means almost literally it goes off every 5 seconds. I prefer this over Ilambris due to the fact its instant damage and in vMA you move around a lot so having a stationary AoE proc may or may not be the best.

5x Julianos (Divines, All Magicka Enchants). Easy to come by. Only requires 5 traits to craft. I still use mine to this day.

3x Willpower (Arcane, Spell Damage Enchants). Pretty much your best bet for a jewelry set. You can get this in Imperial city or from premium undaunted dailies.

It’s a good idea to use the Undaunted Mettle passive. I used a Heavy chest piece, Medium helm, and the rest Light armor. Having a heavy armor chest piece gives you that tiny bit of extra resistance to help you survive a bit better.

When it comes to race, I used a Breton but High Elf or Dark Elf works too.

Mundus stone should be the Thief. Standard DPS Mundus Stone.

For Attribute Points, I did 60 Magicka, 4 Health. I balanced my HP to exactly 18k.

Blue food is fine. I use Solitude Salmon-Millet Soup.

Tri potions are absolutely necessary. They are a gift from god. They can bail you out of any resource hole you end up in.

My Champion Points are max, so if you’re under CP 300ish you should probably level a bit more before you dive into vMA.

For Blue: 100 into Elemental Expert, 25 into Elfborn 17 into Spell Erosion, 45 into Thaumaturge. Basic DPS set up. I put a lot into Thaumaturge due to the fact we have a lot of DoTs.

You stats should be pretty close to this. When I took this screen shot I did have my gold Maelstrom staff equipped and a full gold Infalliable Aether jewelry. All my armor was gold as well, so if your numbers are a bit off, that’s why.

I have two skill guides, Aggressive and Defensive. I used Defensive first time around due to the fact my high ping and ability lag continually got me killed.

Aggressive Build: Pretty straight forward. Requires a bit of bar swapping and keeping passives up at all times but not too hard to run.

Bar 1: Pretty much any weapon with precise or sharpened can go here. I used a resto staff I got from a dungeon.

Radiant Oppression: Jesus beam. Basically after maybe 30% HP on a target you only use this. Main execute on bosses.

Radiant Aura: I like this over Repentance. You get the slotted bonuses and when you activate it you get the major bonuses as well. Helps out a lot when you have to spam spells to keep yourself alive. Also helps you keep your magicka up for Radiant Oppression.

Blazing Spears: A ranged stun against those evil archers that for some reason hurt far worse than any of the melee NPCs. This is also your ranged spam.

Shooting Star: Does a lot of damage in a small area and comes back really fast. I use this on bosses that sit still for a time. Also boosts the magicka controller passive.

Bar 2: Inferno staff goes here. Preferably with precise or sharpened.

Inner Light: Same as above.

Channeled Focus: This is your only true defense against one shots. Gives you Major Resolve and Ward, plus helps with magicka regen.

Elemental Blockade: One of the main DoT. Really strong spell, keep it up as much as possible.

Ritual of Retribution: This spell is awesome. Its a cleanse if something slows or tethers you. Really becomes a life saver when there are a bunch of adds that apply bleeds.

Reflecting light: Another DoT. this ones not as important as Elemental blockade due to the fact it can really only effect 3 monsters at once. I use it for annoying ranged things and bosses.

Elemental Rage: This is by far the coolest Ult in the game. You can quite literally cast this on a boss with adds and just block and practically melt the boss.

Defensive Build: If you suffer from ability lag, lack of response from your character, or RNG, this really comes in handy. Basically you sacrifice damage and resources for a bunch of OH S#*%! buttons. It also doesn’t require that much bar swapping, if thats an issue.

Bar 1: Inferno Staff. This is all your damage so it needs to be an inferno staff.